


Listen

by AlexiHollis



Series: Moving [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, mentioned minor character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 10:52:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11553678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiHollis/pseuds/AlexiHollis
Summary: Why Amethyst came to live with Jasper





	Listen

**Author's Note:**

> This takes places a couple months after Peridot moves in with Garnet

It only took ten seconds for Amethyst’s world to collapse.  

One. Standing at the bus stop located at the end of Amethyst’s driveway, Carnelian right beside her as always, the sister closest to her in age, but still five years older.

Two. More kids make their way out of their houses. Amethyst’s always early; she makes a lot of noise, even compared to her sisters, so it’s best to get her out early as to not wake their sleeping, hungover mother passed out on the kitchen floor.

Three. The wind picks up and chills Amethyst to the bone. The other kids are in big puffy winter coats, but Amethyst’s wearing the same light sweater that got her through autumn.

Four. Some of the other kids start talking about Christmas break, only a week away. Amethyst notices the white van parked at the end of the street making its way closer to the group of children.

Five. The van pulls in front of them and the man driving asks if any of the kids want to see the puppies he has in the back. Amethyst wants to and makes her way to the back, but Carnelian yells at the man to go away and for Amethyst to get away from the van.

Six. A different man comes out of the back of the van. Amethyst doesn’t see any puppies. He grabs her arm.

Seven. Carnelian pulls her away from him, throwing her to the ground.

Eight. The man turns his attention to Carnelian and grabs her. Parents have started coming out of the houses, but their too far away. No one comes out of the house at the top of the driveway.

Nine. Carnelian yells at Amethyst to run, to get help, but mom’s still passed out on the floor and the high school bus picked up the rest of their sister’s an hour ago.

Ten. The men close the van doors and drive off quickly. The van doesn’t have license plates.

It took six minutes for the police to arrive on the scene. They took statements from the children and took Amethyst to the station for questioning.

Where are your parents? Mom’s at home.

Why didn’t she answer the door? She was sleeping.

Where’s your dad? Dunno.

Did you get a good look at the people who took your sister?

Did you recognize them?

Amethyst, you need to help us so we can get your sister back.

The doctors said once the police started asking questions about the event, reminding her of the trauma that occurred just moments before, that was when Amethyst went into shock. She started hyperventilating and before she knew it, she was in an ambulance. Despite the EMTs asking her questions and trying to keep her talking, she felt so tired and her eyelids never seemed so heavy.

She woke up in a quiet room with a large woman she vaguely recognized who introduced herself as Jasper, her oldest sister, and explained that Amethyst would be living with her now. After that, everything was different.

At seven years old, Amethyst didn’t understand most of anything that occurred that September 23. She didn’t really understand most of anything: why mom always fell asleep on the kitchen floor, why other kids had two parents. She did understand that she never saw her mother after that and the first time she met her father was in a CPS visitation room without the only person who ever seemed to really care about her which automatically made her hate him.

Eleven year old Amethyst knew a little more than seven year old Amethyst.

* * *

 

“Jasper?”

It’d been a long day for both the sisters. September 23s always were. This was the day that Jasper allowed Amethyst to sleep in and miss school, then eat way too much candy. The day all the two did was watch dumb movies and ignore any bad thing in the world. However, after Amethyst brushed her teeth for the night, instead of going into her room, she went into Jasper’s.

“Yeah?” Jasper yawned from where shew as hunched over her desk, sorting through the mail: mostly junk, a magazine and a few bills.

“Did the police ever find Carnelian?” Amethyst asked, leaning against the door frame.

Jasper stilled. Taking a deep breath, she slipped the mail into the desk drawer. Pushing away from the desk, she waved Amethyst over to her. When the young girl was close, Jasper picked her up and sat her on her knee.

“Amethyst, we’ve never really talked about what happened to Carnelian,” Jasper said.

“Why is that?”

Jasper sighed, “You were so young when this happened, Amethyst, and it was months before you could go back to school. Remember, Garnet tutored you for a while?”

“Yeah, I remember. I ate a rock in her garden.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you any more than you already had been. However, if you’re old enough to ask you’re old enough to know.” Jasper took a steadying breath, “You know how sometimes some people do bad things, right?”

“Like Peridot’s mom and dad?”

“Yes, a little bit like that,” Jasper nodded. “Some people in this world do bad things to children for dumb reasons. Before that however, I need you to know, mom did the best she could and she loved us all very much in her own, unique way.”

Amethyst raised an eyebrow at Jasper. In the three years they lived together, Amethyst hadn’t known her to have a single good thing to say about their mother.

“She did,” Jasper assured, chuckling a little at the expression. “But she was sick, she was an alcoholic, and she couldn’t get the help she needed. She was always needing money, do you remember that?”

“I remember looking for coins in the couch so we could buy ramen from the grocery store,” Amethyst said.

“So in order to get by, mom would borrow money from people, but she couldn’t always pay it back and to pay, I believe it was the next mortgage payment, she borrowed money from the wrong people; people who hurt children for dumb reasons. When she didn’t pay them, they told her that if she didn’t pay them back before a set period of time, then they would hurt one of her children.” Amethyst could see tears well up in Jasper’s eyes. “And they did. They took Carnelian and Carnelian is…no longer with us.”

“When did you find out?” Amethyst asked.

“Six months ago.” Jasper said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner…”

“It was supposed to be me.” Amethyst sniffled.

“What?” Jasper’s voice was louder than it had been, her head snapping to look at Amethyst.

“It was supposed to be me, the bad man grabbed me first,” Amethyst began to sob. “I got too close to van, Carnelian told me not to, but I did anyway.” She threw her arms around Jasper as she continued to sob, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, shh, shh, shh, this is not your fault.” Jasper tried to calm her. “Amethyst, none of this is your fault.”

“It’s not?” Amethyst asked.

“No, Amethyst you’re a kid.” After a few more moments of crying, Jasper could almost feel the energy draining out of Amethyst. “Do you want me to carry you to your bed?”

“…can’t I sleep with you tonight?”

“Sure. Whatever you need, always.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this! Please leave a KUDOS or (even better) COMMENT


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